1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to providing advertising in electronic books. More specifically, the present disclosure is related to a method and apparatus for providing targeted advertising in electronic documents and preventing advertising fraud and the unwanted or illegal dissemination of electronic books. In particular, the present disclosure provides a method and apparatus for providing specifically targeted advertising in electronic books and preventing or limiting advertising fraud and the unwanted or illegal dissemination of electronic books, which provides a variety of benefits and advantages. Those benefits and advantages include, but are not limited to, allowing advertisers to directly target specific individuals who match their highly specific selection criteria, providing advertising in electronic books that improves the content value of the electronic book, providing improved advertising methods that are not as susceptible to various forms of advertising fraud, including click and impression fraud, preventing or lessening the illegal or unwanted dissemination of electronic books, providing incentives, promotions and prizes associated with the advertising in the electronic books that lessen the possibility that readers will provide inaccurate information or ignore the electronic advertising and improve the value and effectiveness of the advertising, allowing content providers the ability to benefit from advertising that they cannot choose in their content and still retain their credibility as impartial and uninfluenced content providers and lessening or eliminating the reader's cost to obtain or have access to electronic books.
2. General Background
Providing basic advertising in electronic books is well known in the art. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2002/0188532 A1 to Rothstein discloses providing basic advertising in electronic books. More specifically, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2002/0188532 discloses placing advertising in the electronic books. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2002/0188532 also discloses placing the advertising in the electronic book near key-words in the electronic book and near the front of the electronic book.
Unfortunately, this and other prior art methods do not allow advertisers to place their advertising in front of only those subscribers that specifically match their specific selection criteria. As a result, advertisers waste money, resources and good will advertising to individuals they do not want to target and individuals not interested in or persuaded by their advertising. By placing advertising in front of only those individuals that meet certain specific criteria (which is typically determined by the advertiser), the advertiser can specifically target only those individuals that it believes are most likely to be positively influenced or persuaded by their advertising. Additionally, prior art methods of providing electronic books do not add content value to the electronic book provided, provide incentives, promotions or prizes for readers of the electronic books, encouraging them to read and consider the advertising instead of skipping over it. Prior art methods also do not provide safeguards and protection against illegal or unwanted dissemination of the electronic book and various types of advertising fraud which can be detrimental to both advertisers and content providers. For example, advertisers and content providers are often plagued with problems associated with click and impression fraud that lessen the value of the electronic advertising and have significant costs associated with both of them. Prior art methods also do not allow content providers to benefit from advertising that they do not specifically select or have control over, which allows them to disassociate themselves from the advertisers and thereby remain credible and impartial in the eyes of their readers and the public at large. Accordingly, for these and other reasons, there exists a need for an improved advertising method and apparatus that allows electronic books and their advertisements to reach a specifically targeted audience and prevents or greatly reduces illegal or unwanted dissemination of electronic books and various forms of electronic advertising fraud. The present disclosure provides these and other related advantages.